Florrie Kung is the Service Support Officer at Vision Australia Seeing Eye Dogs. She comes from Hong Kong. She started as an administration volunteer in Seeing Eye Dogs. After 3 years of voluntary services, she joined the team in a full-time capacity to provide administrative support. At times, she helps to care for the dogs that are in training by providing a home during the dogs’ formal training period.
Transcript Available
Charmaine: Hello everyone, welcome to Speak My Language. This podcast is about people from different ethnic communities sharing how to make people with disabilities live better. My name is Charmaine, and I work for the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria, ECCV. During our interviews, we learn how people with disabilities in our community use their personal skills and social resources to make their lives better. We invite people with disabilities to share their real stories and life tips. In addition, we ask different guests to share some activities, resources, opportunities, etc. in the community. We hope this information can help people with disabilities live better. A guide dog is a type of working dog. Its main job is to be the eyes of the visually impaired and help lead the way. Therefore, finding a suitable guide dog for the blind or visually impaired can indeed help improve their quality of life. Our guest in this episode is Flory, who represents Vision Australia to introduce their Seeing Eye Dogs division. Hello Flory, thank you for accepting the interview with Speak My Language!
Flory: Hello everyone!
Charmaine: Flory, could you please explain first to our listeners about Vision Australia Seeing Eye Dogs? What exactly is it?
Flory: Sure! First, I would like to express my gratitude for the invitation to interview, Charmaine. I was initially a volunteer at Seeing Eye Dogs and then joined SED in charge of administrative tasks. People may have heard of Vision Australia. It is a not-for-profit organisation that provides diverse services to the blind or visually impaired people, and the guide dog service, Seeing Eye Dogs, is extremely important in Vision Australia. Our headquarters is in Melbourne. We have our own puppy breeding centre and a comprehensive indoor training venue. Guide dogs that have successfully completed the training will be matched with the blind or visually impaired people in need across different areas in Australia.
Charmaine: Flory, I would like to ask if people who are blind or visually impaired have a guide dog to assist them, can they freely enter and exit public places under the protection of the law?
Flory: That’s right! Legally, guide dog users and their guide dogs are allowed to enter any public place, including restaurants, cafes of any size, the user's workplace, cinemas, hotels, schools, swimming pools, gyms, stadiums, shopping malls or anywhere else they shop. In addition, they can take any means of transportation, including taxis, Uber, trains, trams, buses, planes, etc. In Australia, if users with guide dogs are refused entry to these places, or are treated unfairly because they use guide dogs, it is discriminatory and illegal, and the offender will be fined. Each state and territory has different penalty mechanisms.
Charmaine: Thank you for the clear explanation. I would like to ask how a dog is trained in Seeing Eye Dogs generally before becoming a fully-trained guide dog.
Flory: Let me talk about the life of our dogs. First of all, we have a veterinarian who specialises in breeding of dogs for this work. Most of our working dogs are bred by ourselves. The dogs live in our puppy breeding centre until they are eight weeks old. In the next year, they will be sent to a foster home to receive socialisation training, learn transportation etiquette and pick up some commands. When the dogs are 12 to 14 months old, they will return to our centre for professional training. After training these dogs for the next 4 to 5 months, we will evaluate whether they are suitable to be guide dogs, and train them to do various tasks that guide dogs have to perform. During this training, they need to pass three task tests. The trainers wear blindfolds so that they cannot see anything. The guide dogs will lead these trainers to their destinations, avoid obstacles, and stop at appropriate places. These are the actions they need to perform. These guide dogs also need to pass two obedience tests to ensure that they are qualified in terms of social etiquette, such as not being harassed by other cats and dogs, or being tempted by food on the ground, as well as maintaining appropriate courtesy in public places, or remaining quiet.
Charmaine: Well, from what you just said, I can tell these guide dogs actually receive a comprehensive and strict training. I would like to ask, for the blind people or visually impaired people in Australia, is it common to return to work with guide dogs?
Flory: Actually, yes, as mentioned before, users can take their guide dogs back to work or school. Guide dogs can be regarded as the eyes of the visually impaired. They guide the visually impaired to safely reach destinations and avoid obstacles on the road. Without them, people with the disability would not be able to go back to work or school. Therefore, part of the training will occur at the user's workplace, or school if they are students, to advise their colleagues or classmates how to accommodate this new friend, the guide dog.
Charmaine: Are there any workplaces or offices that are not suitable for working with a guide dog?
Flory: In fact, there are two places that guide dogs are not allowed, namely the operating rooms and certain venues in a zoo. In fact, if you bring a guide dog into the zoo, their staff will tell you which parts are allowed and which parts are not allowed.
Charmaine: Well, generally speaking, how does Vision Australia support the blind or visually impaired customers to return to their workplaces with their guide dogs?
Flory: When dogs are trained with their beneficiaries, one of the key parts is to train them to go to places where the beneficiaries often visit, such as their workplaces, schools, shops, medical clinics. For example, if the user is going to return to work in an office, beforehand the trainer follows the user and the guide dog to learn the route to and from work, helps them find a suitable area in the company for the dog to sit or sleep, or looks for a place nearby for the dog to pee. The trainer can also explain to the beneficiary's colleagues things requiring attention when getting along with the guide dog, such as not to feed it suddenly, or not to harass it or play with it when it is resting. If the beneficiary is a high school student, we can work with the school to explain to the classmates how to behave with the dog in the same classroom.
Charmaine: Wow, that's very clear. So, I heard from you that guide dogs can accompany people in need in many situations, whether they are returning to work or school or traveling to various places. Do you think, in general, guide dogs can actually help the blind or visually impaired people establish a more independent, strong and inclusive life in their daily lives?
Flory: Guide dogs are professionally trained dogs that provide services to blind and visually impaired people, improve their mobility and safety, and become their spiritual companions. Guide dogs can do many things. They can lead the way, avoid roadblocks and obstacles on the road, determine the roadside and stairs, find vacancies and elevators, and recognise traffic lights, etc. They can help the visually impaired, enhance their confidence and make them integrate better into this society! Being able to go out with confidence is one huge advantage. Our beneficiaries often tell us that without the guide dog, they are afraid of going out on the street using a white cane. They say that others on the street do not always notice them, making it hard to avoid collisions. However, if there is a guide dog, everyone knows that there is a person who needs help, and they will give way to that person. Besides, the guide dog makes it easier for them to communicate with passersby.
Charmaine: Very good, guide dogs can accompany them and help them live more independently. Generally, it can improve their overall quality of life indeed. Flory, if any of our listeners are interested in learning more about Seeing Eye Dogs or related services, where can they find relevant information?
Flory: If listeners are in need, you can contact Seeing Eye Dogs directly. Or you can be referred to us through Vision Australia. The contact number for Seeing Eye Dogs is 1800037773 and the website is sed.visionaustralia.org. Vision Australia’s phone number is 1300847466 and their website is visionaustralia.org. You can also call TIS National, which provides some real-time translation services for non-English speakers and can help you contact us. The phone number of TIS National is 131450.
Charmaine: Now to the end of the podcast! Thank you, Flory, for accepting our interview today to share practical information about Vision Australia Seeing Eye Dogs. Flory, do you have some key messages you would like to say to our listeners before we wrap up?
Flory: First of all, if you find that you have vision problems, please seek medical treatment as soon as possible, because often some simple drug treatments is enough to help you maintain your vision. If drugs or other treatments are not good enough, you can Contact Vision Australia. For example, they have some occupational therapists who can help you make some small changes at home, which can get rid of a lot of inconveniences in your life. However, if unfortunately you get to a point where you need mobility assistance, including guide dogs, you can contact us directly at Seeing Eye Dogs for help. The most important thing is not to be shy, because in fact many people have the same problem. Our organisation is here to help everyone improve their lives.
Charmaine: Thank you again Flory for accepting our interview this time, and thank you to the listeners for listening to our podcast. Goodbye. If you like our podcasts, you can go to speakmylanguage.com.au for more information. We hope you can share our Speak My Language podcast with others. You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. We hope you can help us promote the Speak My Language podcast to Australia and even across the world. Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria (ECCV) is honoured to participate in the promotion in Victoria. Speak My Language is funded by the Department of Social Services and co-organised by the Ethnic and Multicultural Communities’ Councils of each state and territory and Multicultural Councils. Our broadcast partners across the country are SBS and NEMBC.
